Irish encouraged to recycle more

Irish consumers and businesses need to recycle more in order to meet the doubling of Ireland's EU packaging targets by 2005, it was claimed today.

The comments were made by Andrew Hetherington, CEO Repak at the launch of the Repak National Recycling Week which takes place from September 30 until October 6 2002.

The theme of the week is 'Start Recycling - Keep Recycling' and encourages consumers to use the week to start their recycling habits.

Repak have organised activities across the country, which aim to educate householders on the importance of recycling as well as outlining some of the recycling services available to them.

Speaking at the launch Andrew Herthington, CEO, Repak said "We produce over 330 kilos of packaging waste per household per year.

Last year was a success when we exceeded our target and we have also seen an increase from 25% in 2000 to 45% this year of people visiting a Bring Bank at least once a month, but in order to meet future targets we need to increase this to at least 90% of the population.

This year we achieved 33%, but by 2005 we need to achieve recycling targets of 450,000 tonnes or 50% of all packaging."